Action | "Speech" | Thought

And where would you go? Into the woods to die?

His questions irritated her. She had told him to leave her alone. She would not be tricked a second time by his false concern. She would have liked to kick him if she'd had the energy for it. She didn't need or want anyone's pity, especially not from a stranger. Still, her wheezing would not allow her to react to the stallion. At least not until he spoke a second time.

Come with me, my sister is a healer. She may not be able to cure you, but she can help.

Her unsteady stride ground to a halt and she turned her head to look at him from around her hips and the bulk of her folded wings. For a fleeting moment, it seemed like her blue eyes were softening a little. The hostility had melted, anyways. A single dusted, dainty ear flicked to point towards him, however when her eyes focused on him, he was walking away. She had been about to accept the offer of help, because even though she was a proud mare, she would not refuse help when it was offered. She could recognize when it was wise to accept charity, even if such a thing grated on her pride.

Seeing him walk away from her, she got the feeling that he was tired of putting up with her personality already. Thinking fast, Gwen turned and flapping her wings once, she lifted off the ground enough to catch a small breeze. Like a butterfly on the breath of a wind, she glided over to his side and lighted on the ground beside him softly. "You are a fool, i hope you know that." She said, her tone had lost it's defensive, abrasive edge, and now she only sounded weary. She sniffled a little and turned her head away to cough again, but this time it wasn't a string of them.

The pair would walk in silence for a while, or so they would on Gwen's half. The mare was concentrating too hard on not falling over to be much use in a conversation. She would hold her tongue until she could not go farther without a break and leaned against a tree trunk to ease the weight off her shaky legs. That terrified running had done a real number on her bodily health, considering that the disease was likely to act up as it was now, when her body was too exhausted from running away from danger to fight off the sickness. When she leaned against the trunk, she nickered at him wordlessly to let him know that she was stopping. The necklace she wore rattled against her chest with every movement she made, and she was so used to it's presence on her neck that she no longer was aware of it hanging there.

Gwen took a moment to catch her breath and then heaved herself onto her hooves again. "I hope your sister knows this disease. She'll have her work cut out for her otherwise." She said, her hostility from before all but forgotten. Whether that was because she was too tired to be spiteful, or because she was glad of the help, no one would know. Although personally, my moneys not on the latter.

Gwen tried her hardest to keep up with Alleo. Despite her disability, she was too spirited to give up, and the promise of medical attention had brought a spark of hope to the mare. Maybe this land had magic that her own lacked. She knew that if life handed you lemons you were supposed to make lemonade, however, her life had handed her a sack of rotten lemons. She didn't even know what to do with them, except for to hope that she could get rid of them somehow.

After another long moment of silence from Gwen, the mare turned her head to the stallion who had deigned to put up with her attitude and offer her help. "I was forced to carry this disease. It acts up when I spend my strength so that I can't fight it away. It's transmitted through bodily fluids- saliva, blood... and um... more personal fluids... if you catch my drift." She flicked her tail, embarrassed and nervous at the same time. as she spoke about it, she found she could not meet his gaze. "I get winded easily with the slightest physical activity. I was travelling with a friend and we were separated when we were set upon by wolves. She ran for it in a panic and left me in a cloud of dust, since I couldn't run as fast. I only got away because I jumped off a cliff and glided all the way to this place... I landed and when I started looking for someone to tell me where I was, I met you."

She had the air of one who was not telling him the whole story. Still, she thought he wasn't close enough to her for her to trust him with anything more than the basic idea. She wouldn't put it past him to press her for details, that's how stallions were- nosy, over-confidant, control freaks. Or so that's how all the stallions she'd ever known were. If he did, though, he was likely to get hurt. She didn't know yet how things worked in this new land, but she was raised not to take shit from anyone, and she wasn't about to start now.

916
@[Alleo], played by Ali
Ugh! Sorry that took so long.